Knock 'Em Out
by Dream.Before.Nightmare
Summary: There's plenty of humans in Ikebukuro. They lead such normal lives in reality, at least, that's what they think, so does Asako Inuoe, a bar manager in love with one of the city's strongest men. Hopelessly in love.  Shizuo x OC
1. Normal, Daily Life

**Thanks to everyone who's been reading, reviewing, and favouriting!**

**Newly edited version! I made some major mistake last time with grammar and all that and I apologize! I hope it didn't burn your eyes too much!**

**_Normal, Daily Life_**

Her name was Asako Inuoe and 24 years old, the same number of hours in her 'normal' day.

She smoothed out her dyed, waved locks and her usual 'classy style' dress and headed out onto what seemed like Tokyo's strangest city, Ikebukuro.

It was nighttime and as a bar manager she woke up at odd hours and worked them, too. Asako inhaled the cool, dirty air and started to walk all the way to her work, a place (idiotically, she thought) named CLUB. Asako took her normal route to work. It would take her through the park, by Russia Sushi and most importantly where Tom and Shizuo hung out after collecting (in no particular order).

Her heart beat a little faster. She's been in love with Ikebukuro's supposedly strongest man for 3 years, right after they met at a bar they both worked at.

Asako assumed she was good at hiding her feelings since people never seemed to acknowledge it. And anyways, they were all friends, so she guessed it wouldn't be much of a surprise if anyone found out.

It made her dazed just thinking about it, there was probably no way that she would even think of telling him. At a dumb moment at least. She's seen enough to know what happens to girls who do that and get rejected harshly, but embarrassed enough that it would make her look like a high school girl. Ah, this wasn't any time to think about that, Kurozawa, the supervisor of the place would need her soon.

"Eat Russian Sushi. Sushi good for you," called Russia Sushi's diligent worker, Simon.

"Asako! Hello! Long time not seen! Eat Russian Sushi?" he asked her as she passed by and waved flyers.

"Yes! After work! Will you be open around 7?" she asked. They both knew that asking that question wouldn't even matter, Simon and Dennis would be open forever if they could.

"Anytime for you! Anytime for sushi!" he nodded.

"Good! Table for one!" Asako ordered and waved goodbye to the large, Russian man.

Asako sighed as she walked through the park; she was halfway to CLUB and who knows what was going on there now.

Maybe someone called in sick? Well, she would be notified unless it was sudden. She prayed her employees weren't hacked by the Slasher or killed by the Headless Rider. Speaking about that, there she was, speeding off right in front of Asako's very eyes.

It made the woman very happy to think that even urban legends probably lived somewhat normal lives too. She laughed when she thought of her 'normal' life. Working at odd hours, looking the way she did (not that there was anything wrong with it), and having a teenage crush on some guy that looked like he was working for her…

Was that normal?

Well, she was almost content with it, so what did it matter?

"Hey, Asako-san," called out one of her friends emerging from an apartment that had –with a quick glance- a very large couch crumpled on the street and a lot of broken glass from a very high window.

"Tom-kun! It's good to see you? Been busy collecting?" she asked, trying to study how much force it would take to even crumple a couch.

Tom sometimes took up small jobs from her to get some money back from drinkers.

"As always. You can't imagine what people have done this month to try to escape," he groaned, walking with her now.

"Well, I'm sure escape is impossible if it's you and Shizuo-kun on the job. Well, anyways, maybe you can tell me about it later. I've gotta run," she waved after seeing the tall, blonde bodyguard exit the apartment building. She hurried off for CLUB, it was already 1: 37 and Kurozawa called almost an hour ago.

How long could she keep this up?

…

"Asako-chan! Working early?" asked her old friend after she got off from work.

It was already 8 o'clock and she had worked 8 hours. Apparently there really was a shortage of hands and there was a small, drunk scuffle between some member of the Yellow Scarves and some other random man accused of being a Dollars member.

With Asako's experience, it was broken up easily (not that is was too hard to pull apart some really drunk guys).

"I just got off," she laughed, "Are you going to work now, Shinra-kun?"

"Yeah, I actually have something normal to do: paperwork," he grinned and pointing to the pen in his front pocket.

"That's good," Asako commented, she wished that she had the same outlook as Shinra on paperwork.

He always had this weird sense of life.

"Listen, I'll see you later! Come over any time!" Shinra invited, "I think I'll show you something!"

Asako nodded and thought nothing much about it, but she hoped it was something about tastebuds so she could make new and better drinks.

"Yeah, stop by anytime!" she waved and resumed walking back to where she would get her breakfast, Russia Sushi.

…

"Welcome back!" Simon greeted the smaller woman, "was work good?"

Asako smiled and replied with a mindless "Yes."

"You look tired! Sushi may give you energy!" Simon encouraged.

"Well, you know I wanted breakfast," she reminded, her tiredness drifting away slowly with the smell of food.

"Eat sushi, Russian Sushi," he advised.

She walked slowly into the restaurant and was one of the few in there at this hour. Dennis noticed her and showed her to a table, ("Table for one!" he laughed) and took her order, even though she knew they'd give her more than that.

Asako was soon served with Russia Sushi's breakfast platter: pancake with syrup sushi rolls, bacon sushi and cereal-topped sushi rolls that came with a cup of milk. She ordered one more thing, her favourite drink, an orange juice called Mikan no Usagi. Asako loved rabbits on behalf of their mascot, Mimi Usagi, a bunny who also wore dresses.

Anyways, Asako chowed down on the weird food that you could only find in Ikebukuro's finest sushi shop.

…

Asako held her head in her hands, just sitting in her seat. She had already paid for her breakfast and was poking at her still wrapped fortune cookie. The disappointedly tired bar manager wondered what could be her fortune. She always tried to save really good fortunes and kept them in a jar near her bunny collection.

She decided to stop wasting time and open her fortune cookie. She ate the cookie before seeing the fortune (other wise it won't come true) and turned over the small strip of paper.

She read it carefully and her heart did a little jump.

'Now is the time to go ahead and pursue that love interest!'

Asako read the words again and considered them. She thought it was silly for liking him after all these years, but her heart always seemed to jump back to him. Maybe she could catch him around town and she could talk to him.

Yeah, that'd be the plan.

Shizuo wandered around more frequently because, from what she heard, Izaya was back in town and probably off to cause trouble.

She slipped the good fortune into her purse and slipped out of sight.

…

There was one more element to Asako's daily life and that was her walk home. If she had run into at least twenty people she knew during her walk to work, a lot of things were bound to happen. Asako took her sweet time; she was slowly waking up in the bustling city. The woman hummed a song she used to sing when she was a bar singer. That was when she started at the same bar Shizuo was bartending. She dressed the same too. The only thing a little different from now (besides her occupation) were her smoking habits. She just began to quit when she started since someone told her that it might ruin her velvet voice.

Asako looked around the park. There were a group of teenagers talking on the playground. A young man and a teenage girl were hugging near a park fountain. An old artist was sketching a man. She thought she saw a glimpse of Shizuo and Tom, maybe on their way to get a pack of smokes. Again, she saw the fabled headless rider.

No one stopped her this time. Everyone kept moving around her.

Asako sighed, there was something simply wonderful about her normal, daily life.


	2. Pursue That Love Interest

**Thanks to everyone who's been reading, reviewing, and favouriting!**

**The fist chapter has been fixed with edits, so I apologize! Please re-read it, it will be more pleasant to your eyes I think. I'm thinking of editing this one up too. Sorry for the delay in chapters.**

**_'Pursue That Love Interest!'_**

"I want the...melon-flavour one," Asako decided. She was standing in front of one of the nearby vending machines and punched the numbers of the Usagi juice. The machine hummed and buzzed and slid out her picked it up, opened it and took a sip.

It was one of her days off and she wanted to spend it well. Asako planned to eat at Russia Sushi... maybe go shopping... She would do whatever came to mind.

The woman walked out of the small street and she finished her drink with her eyes closed. When she opened her eyes when the last of the juice was gone, she saw most of the people on the street scrambling away and something fly in front of her.

"IZAYA!" someone shouted.

There was only one person in Ikebukuro with a deep hatred for the informant and the power to match.

Asako put down her drink and tried not to look around frantically for Shizuo. The ripping and tearing of metal could be heard and it was close. The sound of laughter came from Asako's right; Izaya was laughing at Shizuo's attempts to kill him. That made Asako feel so... Ugh! Ikebukuro could only put up with the man and his deeds. He brought in business but trouble seemed to follow closely after. A vending machine was thrown at the black-jacketed man and Shizuo stepped out onto the scene. Asako's heart fluttered, he was so handsome... She imagined him fighting Izaya for her, even though it would never happen, ever.

"Shizu-kun, I'm over here!" Izaya pointed out with the vending machine mangled next to him; Shizuo had missed. Shizuo called out his name again and launched more things. A street sign, a trashcan, even a bike. Asako wondered if anyone demanded that he owed them back, but she considered people would be too scared. "Well, I have to run! It's been fun playing with you, Shizu!" Izaya teased and the bar workers watched him run off (well, Shizuo did dress like a bartender). The blonde man let out an angry sigh and started walking away from Asako across the street.

'Now is the time to pursue that love interest!'

The fortune rang through her mind and she took a deep breath and clutched her empty juice bottle.

"Um. Um! Shizuo-kun!" she called out. She thought he didn't hear her since he kept walking and she turned away, but her crush turned around and nodded towards her. Asako waved back and became a little frantic when he started walking towards her. Maybe she should have thought this through.

"Asako-chan, nice to see you. How have you been?" he asked.

"Good!" she nodded. That may have been a lie. She was frozen. Her crush was right in front of her and her heart was going too fast for comfort. Asako tried not to smooth out her dress or tug at her hair, that would just make him think something is up. "How is CLUB? Managing must be difficult."

"It's doing a lot better than I thought when I became manager," she answered, hoping her voice wasn't as shaky as she thought, "The odd hours are the hardest part."

He nodded, "I know. Say, where are you going?"

"I was planning to go to the park actually," Asako said, they would probably have to part ways now. Shizuo made a face. He was deciding something.

"I was going there too."

Asako didn't say anything, but from where he was going earlier, he probably wasn't really headed towards the park. Did he just change his mind? Or feel sorry for her or something?

"I'll walk with you, after all, we haven't seen each other in a while," Shizuo shrugged. Asako nodded and prayed she wouldn't have a heart attack. Pursuing love would kill her.

…

"So you're actually off today?" asked Shizuo. They were walking slowly through Ikebukuro's streets to the park, after all, it seemed like they had all the time in the world.

"Yes," Asako smiled, "Wait, 'actually'?"

Shizuo laughed and looked down at her, "Well from what you're telling me, you're always running off to work."

That made Asako a little disappointed, she guessed she was always working, but it wasn't that bad to her.

"It isn't really that bad," she replied with a frown.

Shizuo laughed, "Well I'm working at odd hours too, I suppose," he shrugged.

They went quiet after that.

Asako was really enjoying his company, even though every minute was a heart-racing experience.

She imagined him grabbing her by the hand and they'd go on a date but not really. And then he'd say to her, 'See you later!' and they'd find themselves in the same situation and eventually it'd become a frequent thing and people would ask if they were dating. Of course she'd politely deny it since it never occurred to her, but Shizuo would bravely reply 'of course she is!' and put his arm around-

"Woah! Watch it, lady!" shouted someone on a bike who was speeding past Asako. She jumped back and made a note that she certainly should stop daydreaming.

"Hey! Come back here, punk! Don't yell at a woman like that!" Shizuo shouted, getting ready to chase after the man on the bike. The man heard him and pedaled faster.

"Hey!" he shouted after him, but Asako reached out and touched his arm before he took off. He stopped what he was doing and looked down at Asako.

She removed her hand instantly; he probably didn't want to be touched.

"It's fine, really. I wasn't paying attention anyways," she waved and shrugged.

Shizuo looked down at her and coolly advised her to "At least be careful of where you're going."

She immediately agreed and walked on with him.

If pursuing her love interest meant these kinds of walks, she guessed she wouldn't mind it as much.


End file.
